On my 21st birthday, I sat down with my grandmother to look at a family album. In this album was a book of strangers, people I never met or heard of. For the first time, I saw my great-grandparents, my ‘Opa’ as a young man, my five great uncles and the town that they came from. This experience changed me, creating a need for me to know more about my familial history.

The Bosker (2017) explores my Dutch heritage, specifically the relationship between myself and my grandfather, my ‘Opa’. I have grown up with stories about him, who he used to be and where he came from. These stories have shaped me but ultimately exist in a state of uncertainty in which interpretation dictates my understanding. Working with a series of archival family images and stories, The Bosker is a photographic exploration of a family’s history, stories told and retold, memories, and versions of events that recount a biography of my ‘Opa’ in which I reimagine my own version.